Artist Biography & Facts

Harold Altman

Printmaker Harold Altman was an etcher, painter, and teacher, who was born in New York City in 1924. He attended the Art Students League, 1941-42 and Cooper Union, (Graduate in Fine Arts), 1941-47, both in New York City.  In 1946, he attended Black Mountain College, North Carolina and then went on to The New School, New York City 1947-49.  Finishing his extensive art education at the L'Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris 1949-52.

The artist also served with the 937th Engineer Camouflage, European Theater of Operations during World War II, 1942-45.

Altman settled in the central Pennsylvanian village of Lemont in 1962, where a nineteenth-century frame church serves as his studio.  Approximately four months out of the year are spent working in Paris where his lithographs are printed at Atelier DesJobert.  In previous years, his etchings were printed at Atelier George LeBlanc.

Altman's landscapes and figurative works have been exhibited at numerous galleries and museums, both in the United States and abroad.  He is represented in nearly every significant collection in the world. New York's Museum of Modern Art owns over forty Altmans while the Whitney Museum of American Art and Brooklyn Museums each have over fifty of his works in their permanent collections.

His work is to be found in many significant museum collections outside of the United States, several of which are the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam, the Kunst Museum of Basel, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Copenhagen and the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris.

Altman has received numerous awards, grants and fellowships. Among them are two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Tamarind Lithography Fellowship, a National Institute of the Arts and Letters Award, a Fulbright-Hayes Senior Research Fellowship for work in France and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant.

TEACHING:

Assistant Professor; New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University (1952-54)
Assistant Professor; University of North Carolina, Greensboro (1954-56)
Assistant Professor; Indiana University, (Summer 1956)
Assistant Professor; University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (1956-62)
Professor; Pennsylvania State University (1962-1976)
Professor Emeritus; Pennsylvania State University (1978-present)

MILITARY SERVICE:

937th Engineer Camouflage, European Theater of Operations 1942-45

EXHIBITIONS:

OVER 300 ONE-MAN EXHIBITIONS (PARTIAL LISTING)

Galerie Huit - Paris (1951)
The Art Institute of Chicago - (1960)
The Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas - Mexico City (1961)
The San Francisco Museum of Art - (1961)
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art - (1961)
Oklahoma Art Center - (1966, 1976)
The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art - Winston-Salem, NC (1976)
Milwaukee Art Center - (1969)
The Print Cabinet - Wilton, CT (1976)
The Wustum Museum of Art - (1974)
Sagot-Le Garrec - Paris (1968, 1974, 1977)
Multiple Impressions - New York (1976-94)
Usis Sanat Galerisi - Izmir, Turkey (1975)
The National Academy of Art - Ankara, Turkey (1975)
Kunsthandlung Goyert - Cologne, Germany (1979)
Impressions Gallery - Boston, MA (1975, 1976, 1978, 1980)
Concept Gallery - Pittsburgh, PA (1981)
Galleria Prova - Tokyo, Japan (1989, 1992)

AWARDS AND COMMENDATIONS:
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Annual (1959)
The Boston Arts Festival National Drawing Competition (1959)
The Associated American Artists 25th Anniversary Exhibition (1959)
The Society of American Graphic Artists Exhibition (1959, 1965, 1968)
The Boston Printmakers Exhibition (1960, 1961, 1964, 1974-78)
Ball State University National Drawing and Sculpture Exhibition (1958, 1959, 1964, 1966, 1968)
California Society of Etchers Annual (1961)
The San Francisco Art Institute 25th Annual Exhibition
The John Taylor Arms Medal, Audubon Artists (1962)
William and Bertha Clusmann Prize for Painting, Art Institute of Chicago (1962)
The National Academy of Design Annual Exhibition (1962, 1970, 1974)
Olivet College National Print Exhibition (1961, 1966, 1968)
The Annual National Print Exhibition; Atlanta, GA (1971, 1976)
Norfolk Museum American Drawing Biennials (1957, 1961, 1969)
The Gallery of Contemporary Arts 36th Southeastern Exhibition; Winston-Salem, NC. Best in Show (1972, 1975)
The Davidson National Drawing and Print Exhibition; Winston-Salem, NC (1974, 1975)
The University of Colorado First National Print and Drawing Exhibition (1974)
The Los Angeles Printmaking Society Third National Exhibition (1975)
The Library of Congress 24th Annual Exhibition of Prints (1975, 1977)
The Erie Art Center 52nd Annual Show (1975)
The College of the Siskiyous National Print and Drawing Competition (1975)
The Dulin Gallery of Art National Print and Drawing Competition (1976)
The Western Annual Juried Exhibition of Works of Art on Paper (1976)
The Second Street Gallery National Print and Drawing Exhibition; Charlottesville, VA (1976)
The Hunterdon Art Center 17th National Print Exhibition (1976)
The State University of New York at Fredonia National Print Exhibition (1976)
The National Arts Club (NTL) Graphic Competition (1976)
Arts '76; Pennsylvania State University (1976)
The Fifth Biennial International Matmedia Exhibition (1975)
The National Arts Club Gold Medal of Honor. Best in Show (1976)

GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS:

Faculty Research Grants; University of Wisconsin (1958-62)
Two John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships, 1960-61, with a renewal of the fellowship for the year 1961-62
Tamarind Lithography Workshop Fellowship (1961)
National Institute of Arts and Letters Awards (1963)
Fulbright-Hayes Research Scholar to France (1964-65)
Grants from the Institute of Arts and Humanistic Studies; Pennsylvania State University (1968, 1969, 1973, 1976)
Fellow of Institute of Arts and Humanistic Studies; Pennsylvania State University (1971-76)
Elected to the Societe Des Peintres Graveurs Francais (1976)
National Endowment for the Arts Grant for Printmaking (1976)

ARTICLES AND REVIEWS:

The artist's works have been reproduced and discussed in a number of publications, some of which are listed below:

Art in America, Arts, Art News, American Artist, Vogue, The NewYork Times, The New York Herald Tribune, The New York Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Daily News,The Milwaukee Journal, The Los
Angeles Times, The New Republic,Arts and Spectacles (France), Figaro (France), The San Francisco Examiner, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Dallas Daily News,The Louisville Courier Journal, The Cincinnati Enquirer, Excelsior(Mexico City), Novedades (Mexico City), The Washington Post,The Christian Science Monitor, Die Abend-Zeitung (Switzerland), The Denver Post, The Cleveland Sun, The Cleveland Plain Dealer,Holiday, The Detroit News, Les Lettres Francaises, La Vie Des Arts, The New Yorker Magazine, The Boston Globe, Le Monde (Paris), L'Aurore (Paris), The Indianapolis Star, The Indianapolis News, The New Orleans Times Picayune, The International Herald Tribune,The Sydney Telegraph (Australia), Ekspres (Izmir, Turkey), The Montreal Star


Source: http://www.haroldaltman.com/HTML/Bio/HABio.html

The following is submitted by Stuart Bloom, whose source is the artist's obituary in The New York Times, August 16, 2003.

Harold Altman, Printmaker, Painter and Professor of Art, Dies at 79
By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Harold Altman, a painter, printmaker and lithographer whose work was shown internationally and in major American museums including the Whitney and the Museum of Modern Art, died on July 28 in State College, Pa. He was 79.

The cause was heart failure, his family said.

For the last 40 years Mr. Altman lived and worked in a converted church in the nearby village of Lemont. Until recently he also kept an atelier in Paris, where he printed his lithographs.

Mr. Altman was a professor emeritus of art at Pennsylvania State University. A native New Yorker and a regular in Paris, he drew inspiration from many places, as evidenced by series inspired by Central Park, the parks and markets of Paris, and the Pennsylvania countryside.

Mr. Altman was born in the Bronx. He studied at the Art Students League and Cooper Union in New York and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, where he had his first one-man show in 1951.

Since then his work was shown widely in solo or group exhibitions in galleries and museums as far away as Tokyo. He received two Guggenheim fellowships, grants and numerous awards.

He taught at Penn State's School of Visual Arts from 1962 to 1976, following academic appointments at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and, in the mid-1950's, the University of North Carolina in Greensboro.

Mr. Altman is survived by three sons, Evan and Toby of Lemont, and Eli Beers-Altman of State College; two daughters, Ann Chantal Altman of Manhattan and Jessie Beers-Altman of State College; a sister, Edith Levine of River Edge, N.J.; and one granddaughter.

Harold Altman was born in New York City in 1924.  He attended the Art Students League, the Black Mountain College, the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris, and was a graduate of the Cooper Union Art School.  Since 1962 he has lived in the central Pennsylvanian village of Lemont, where a nineteenth century frame church serves as his studio.

Altman spends one third of each year working in Paris where his lithographs are printed at Atelier DesJobert.  In previous years his etchings were printed at Atelier George LeBlanc.  The artist's works have been exhibited at numerous galleries and museums, both in the United States and abroad.

He is represented in numerous collections. New York's Museum of Modern Art owns over forty Altmans while the Whitney and Brooklyn Museums each have over fifty of his works in their permanent collections.  His work is to be found in many museum collections outside of the United States including the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam, the Kunst Museum of Basel, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Copenhagen and the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris.

Altman has received numerous awards, grants and fellowships.  Among them are two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Tamarind Lithography Fellowship, a National Institute of the Arts and Letters Award, a Fulbright-Hayes Senior Research Fellowship for work in France and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant.

A printmaker and educator born in New York City, Harold Altman studied at the Art Students League, Cooper Union and the New School for Social Research.

His work is in Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum.

He has exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago and the San Francisco Museum of Art. He has taught at New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University and Pennsylvania State University.  He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and recognition from the National Institute of Arts & Letters.